The Civil War battle waged on September 17, 1862, at Antietam Creek, Maryland, was one of the bloodiest in the nation's history: in this single day, the war claimed nearly 23,000 casualties. In Landscape Turned Red, the renowned historian Stephen Sears draws on a remarkable cache of diaries, dispatches, and letters to recreate the vivid drama of Antietam as experienced not only by its leaders but also by its soldiers, both Union and Confederate. Combining...

"On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln became the fluky victor in a tight race for president. The country was bitterly at odds; Southern extremists were moving ever closer to destroying the Union, with one state after another seceding and Lincoln powerless to stop them. Slavery fueled the conflict, but somehow the passions of North and South came to focus on a lonely federal fortress in Charleston Harbor: Fort Sumter. Master storyteller Erik Larson...

With the collapse of the Confederate defenses at Forts Henry and Donelson, the entire Tennessee Valley was open to Union invasion and control. Kendall D. Gott is a military historian for the Combat Studies Institute at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He is the author of several articles and studies on American military history, including the book In Glory's Shadow: The 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment during...

In America's Longest Siege, historian Joseph Kelly captures the toxic mix of nationalism, paternalism, and wealth that made Charleston the center of the nationwide debate over slavery and the tragic act of secession that doomed both the city and the South. Thoroughly researched and compulsively readable, America's Longest Siege offers a new take on the Civil War and the culture that made it inevitable.

Based on the History Channel documentary series. How the Civil War sparked profound changes in slavery, immigration, women's roles, journalism, and more. "In many arenas, the Civil War changed things both in military and civilian life," William C. Davis observes. "The roles in society of women and minorities were altered drastically. Advancements in medicine and technology exerted a profound impact on the future. Industry burgeoned. The reporting...

Tells of the Civil War's first contraband camp that began when three escaped slaves were granted protection at a Union-held fort, prompting runaway slaves to seek freedom there and build the country's first African American community.

This is the fascinating story of Joshua Chamberlain and his volunteer regiment, the Twentieth Maine. This classic and highly acclaimed book tells how Chamberlain and his men fought at Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville on their way to the pivotal battle of Gettysburg. There, on July 2, 1863, at Little Round Top, they heroically saved the left flank of the Union battle line. The Twentieth Maine's remarkable story ends with the surrender...

• Details the overseas diplomatic and intelligence contest between Union and Confederate governments • Documents the historically neglected Thomas Haines Dudley and his European network of agents • Explores the actions that forced neutrality between England and the UnionThe American Civil War conjures images of bloody battlefields in the eastern United States. Few are aware of the equally important diplomatic and intelligence contest between...

Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a Unitarian minister, was a fervent member of New England's abolitionist movement, an active participant in the Underground Railroad, and not only corresponded with John Brown before the ill-fated raid on Harper's Ferry, but was part of a group that supplied material aid to Brown. When the Civil War broke out, his reputation, enhanced by his impassioned articles about Denmark Vesey and Nat Turner in the Atlantic, made him...

From the award-winning, national bestselling author of Gettysburg, this is the definitive account of the Chancellorsville campaign, from the moment "Fighting Joe" Hooker took command of the Army of the Potomac to the Union's stinging, albeit temporary, defeat. Along with a vivid description of the experiences of the troops. Most notable is his use of Union military intelligence reports to show how Gen. Joseph Hooker was fed a stream of accurate information...